Abstract:
The rapid increase in private vehicle usage tends to increase the demand for the road infrastructure and related facilities. Like other cities in the world, Lahore city is also facing with the dilemma of autodependency and transit insufficiency. It is very important for local government to develop and promote state-of-art public transport. To develop such polices, it is essential to explore the potential factors at the planning stage that can affect the intended use of improved transit facilities. Therefore, this study attempts to explore the significant influencing factors on the use of public transport using results of a questionnaire survey. In this study, a questionnaire was designed which included socio-demographics and trip characteristics of respondents, statements on travel attitudes and intentions to use public transport under specific conditions. This survey was conducted in Lahore city and 428 usable samples were obtained. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted and two factors were extracted i.e. auto-oriented and transitoriented. Structural equation modeling technique was used to evaluate the influence of extracted factors on people's intentions to use public transport. The results depict that the intentions to use public transportation are affected negatively by auto-oriented attitudes whereas positively by transit-oriented attitudes. The study findings implicate that auto-oriented attitude of travelers need to address properly in planning and designing public transport improvement policies for Lahore city. The findings would be helpful for local planners and policy makers in developing a transport system for Lahore system that should be sustainable, equitable and affordable for the community.
